I’ve been excited about FragPunk since I played it back at Summer Game Fest. Blending the traditional Valorant-style hero shooter format with Slay the Spire-esque modifiers that change up every round, it’s a unique take on the traditional FPS format. Released on Thursday March 6, the game has certainly drawn impressive numbers on Steam, but its nine different currencies and costly microtransactions have left players frustrated.

As aforementioned, FragPunk is a tactical hero shooter akin to Valorant, which in itself doesn’t sound all that exciting. After each round, however, you’re presented with various different Shard Cards (read modifiers), which you can use to change up the battlefield. You can completely delete bomb sites from the game, stop your enemies from healing each other, or turn dropped weapons into turrets – the choices are endless.

While the FPS game has accrued an impressive record of 54,313 concurrent players at the time of writing, its Steam rating currently sits at 67%, landing it comfortably in the ‘Mixed’ category. The primary reason – as you might expect – is, of course, microtransactions.

FragPunk has a colossal nine currencies on offer in-game, two premium battle passes (premium and ultra, the latter offers unique color variants), and two different memberships (annual and monthly, used to unlock Lancers while giving players access to exclusive skins). As someone who’s played various microtransaction-heavy games – Marvel Rivals most recently – this is a lot to get your head around.